


Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

by MakingStarsShine



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Multi, Not so triangular love triangle, Poor Cisco
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-08 14:57:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10389345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MakingStarsShine/pseuds/MakingStarsShine
Summary: This was a request from @killer-mermaid93 for: “Angst prompts 6) “Please can we just talk this out?” and 12) “Let go” where Cisco has feelings for the reader, but reader is with Harry and leaving to go to earth 2 with him? Please?” I hope you enjoy it! Forewarning, it starts out with Harry/Reader, but keep going! Cisco is in this one I promise! lol





	

 

“You all packed?” Harry smiled softly as he gazed at you from the doorway, his arms already ladened with his own luggage, ready to finally go home.

 

 

You smiled back at him, stuffing one last rolled up pair of jeans in your suitcase before standing up straight and stretching. “Just about,” you replied with a nod, “I just need to collect my toiletries and I’ll be ready to go home,” you approached him slowly, wrapping your arms around his waist as he dropped his back pack at his side, “I take it you didn’t come here to ask if I needed help?”

 

 

Harry smirked and shrugged, “I will admit I mostly just wanted to check up on you,” he conceded as his arms wrapped around you, “watching the man who nearly tortured you to death getting sucked into oblivion by a couple time wraiths isn’t really something that happens every day y’know?” you nodded at that, an amused smirk on your face.

 

 

“You wanted to make sure I wasn’t a sobbing mess as I folded my laundry,” you guessed, to which he nodded. You chuckled softly, “How sweet of you,” you said before placing a kiss on his lips, “but I’m fine. Zoom is gone, I watched it happen true enough, but if I’m honest, it kinda gave me a sense of closure, y’know? I mean, now I know for a fact that he can’t speed back into my life and snatch me up again...or Caitlin for that matter, or anyone,” you took a deep breath, smiling as you sighed “he’s finally, completely gone.”

 

 

Harry nodded, pressing his forehead to yours with a sigh of his own. “Yes, he is,” he agreed. His arms tightened around you for a moment, his eyes closing as a small frown brought out the crinkles at the corners of his eyes. You knew that face, that was his face of uncertainty, you’s seen it up close and personal the entire time Zoom held Jessie captive.

 

 

He had something on his mind, but he didn’t want to talk about it, which is precisely why you asked, “Whats wrong?” in that knowing tone that you knew he’d recognize.

 

 

Harry sighed again, “I’m just...concerned,” he replied, pulling back and fixing you with those frosty blue eyes, his mouth moving stiffly as he went on. “I don’t want you to feel...obligated to come back to Earth 2 with me if you have reason to stay here,” he looked down then, before adding, “or someone to stay for.”

 

 

You knew this was what this was going to be about, even before you asked what was wrong. You loosened your arms around him, stepping back and turning to zip your suitcase closed, “Harry, I’m not going home with you because I feel obligated to,” you explained somewhat impatiently, “I love you, and I made a promise that we would bring Jessie home together, and thats exactly what we’re going to do, so stop -”

 

 

“Stop what?” Harry interrupted you, sounding somewhere between tired and upset, “Please can we just talk this out Y/N? I know what you promised, and I cannot tell you how grateful I am for you keeping me sane while we tried to get Jessie back, but I’m not an idiot,” he placed one hand on his hip as he gesticulated with the other. “I’m not going to stand here and say I don’t want you to come back with me, because I would be lying if I did, but you and Ramon -”

 

 

“Oh man,” you both snapped your attention to Cisco who had just appeared in the doorway, arm raised to knock against the door frame to announce his presence. He grimaced sheepishly, “I uh...I did not mean to walk into this conversation,” he explained nervously, “I just...we’re ready whenever you guys are.”

 

 

You sighed, giving Cisco a tired smile, “Thank you Cisco, we’ll be right there,” you told him, but Harry had other plans.

 

 

“Actually, I’m gonna go check on Jessie,” he said quickly, hoisting his bag back up on his shoulder, “you two might as well get your goodbyes in now.” Harry nodded at you pointedly, earning a slight scowl from you as he turned, patting Cisco on the shoulder as he passed him on his way out.

 

 

Cisco stood in the doorway, looking as though he couldn’t decide between coming further into the room with you, or tucking tail and bolting. After a few moments of semi-awkward silence, he seemed to decide on the former. “So uh...you’re really leaving, huh?” he asked, shoving his hands in his pockets as he put on a small nervous smile.

 

 

You nodded, fixing your eyes on the floor to avoid having to look him in the eye. “We found Jessie, we beat Zoom...time to go home.” You knew there was more to it than that, so much had happened since you and Harry had arrived on this earth, so much had changed. Harry had never been the best at giving emotional support, he was even worse at it when someone he loved was in danger, and despite all you determined strength after escaping Zoom’s clutches, emotional support was exactly what you needed.

 

 

Cisco was almost nothing like Harry, with his gentle caring nature and sunny smile, even after Harry had outed his own fear never seemed to completely snuff out his desire to help others. It felt natural when you began to gravitate towards him, craving his presence in your times of distress like a warm blanket wrapping around you. Neither of you really realized how deep that need for each other went until the night you’d gotten Jessie back. He’d become so drained caring for Caitlin that night, that when he came to you for comfort, you threw yourself into the task full stop, and he in turn did the same for you, having been made aware of your past with Zoom and wanting to be sure you weren’t somehow triggered by their rescue mission. That night had been almost a blur, need of comfort blinding you both to your own morals as gentle hands caressed trembling skin, and you both became lost in each other’s arms and lips and bodies until sun up.

 

 

The trouble with comfort sex is, one of the persons involved usually reads further into it than they ought, and the next morning while you got dressed and prepared to look back on the night you shared with Cisco for the one off experience you thought it would be, Cisco very clearly didn’t see it that way. He’d gotten up and made a cute breakfast for two, grinning like a love sick dope before you had the chance to slip away into the morning sun. The sad confusion in his eyes as you explained yourself and tried to apologize had nearly been too much for you, and you very narrowly gave in and made your one night stand with him a more regular occurrence, but you loved Harry, and despite realizing you loved Cisco as well, you weren’t about to leave Harry for someone younger and softer just because you’d slept with them.

 

 

“I guess its pointless to ask if you’d think about sticking around a little longer?” Cisco asked meekly, a cautious smile on his face, “I mean not just for me...well...ok nevermind, mostly for me...y’know what just forget I said anything -”

 

 

“Cisco,” you said his name softly, giving him a sympathetic look as he began to fidget with his hands, looking down at them as he nibbled his lip nervously. You approached him slowly, taking his hand in yours as you gently coaxed his gaze up to meet yours. “What would happen if I said yes, hmn?” you asked him quietly, moving one of your hands to tuck a lock of hair behind his ear, “what would I do here? I can’t get a job because I’m not a real person on this earth, and I don’t have any genius level engineering or science skills to really help the team with...so what would I do if I stayed here with you?”

 

 

Cisco’s hands seemed to cling to yours as though you were slipping away before his eyes. “You’d just be here, with me, with the team,” he explained softly, pleading, “you don’t have to have a special skill, or be useful to be needed around here Y/N, I need you, I...” he trailed off, using his grasp on your hands to pull you closer, freeing one hand to caress your cheek, “I love you Y/N, and I know Harry loves you too, and you love him but...but we both know he’s gonna have his hands full rebuilding things when you get back, and you need someone who can focus on you and their work separately,” he inched ever closer, bringing your hand up to his chest, resting it over his heart beat. “I don’t want to be a home wrecker here Y/N, but you can’t tell me you don’t feel a connection between us...you make me feel brave Y/N, and I want to be the one to make you feel brave too.”

 

 

You wanted that too if you were honest, you wanted someone who could turn the scientist off, who could completely and utterly focus on you when you needed it the way Cisco could, but it couldn’t work out. Harry was a hard man to handle, he had so many rough edges it was difficult to tell sometimes where his soft spots were, and he had a bad habit of diving into his work to the point of it consuming him; but he could be handled, and when you kissed him in just the right way, or gave him just the right look when he was being too hard on himself or someone else, you could watch his rocky exterior crumble into the loving devoted man he held inside himself, and you wouldn’t give him up for the world.

 

“I love you too Cisco,” you told him honestly, tears welling in his eyes as he braced for what you were going to say next, “but as much as you think you need me, I can tell you for a fact that you don’t.” He opened his mouth to protest, but you shushed him quietly and went on. “Cisco you are so so strong, you’re one of the strongest people I’ve ever met, because you have the biggest heart and the warmest compassion out of anyone on this team.” Tears fell freely down his cheeks now, and you wiped them away with slow gentle fingers, wishing there was some easier way to do this, a way that didn’t hurt him so much. “Harry needs me, he can’t rebuild things back home on his own, and he sure as hell can’t rebuild his relationship with Jessie on his own...back home I have a purpose, I have a name. Here I would feel out of place, no matter how much attention you lavished upon me,” that got you a soft watery chuckle, but his eyes remained closed against you.

 

 

“I’d hoped you’d lavish attention on me too,” Cisco quipped back as he sniffled, “after all relationships are kind of a two way deal.”

 

 

You nodded, smiling fondly at him.“Yes they are,” you agreed, beginning to fight with tears of your own as you watched the muscle in his jaw clench, the pain written across his face echoing in your chest. You decided in an instant that you would kiss him, if for no other reason than to try to convey how you felt for him in case your words hadn’t done the trick. He made a strangled noise in the back of his throat as your lips first touched, then he was kissing you back with a restrained desperation, pressing his body as close to yours as he could as if somehow that would prevent the kiss from ending. But it did end, and you felt all the poorer for it as you stepped back from him.

 

 

He stood there for a moment, swallowing the lump in his throat as he squeezed his eyes shut, the last teardrop that clung to his lashes rolling down his face before he finally opened his eyes, and looked at you. “I guess this is really goodbye then,” he whispered hoarsely, his hand still holding yours against his chest.

 

 

You nodded, taking in a sharp breath through your nose as the tears burned your eyes even more, but you refused to let them win. “Not permanently I’m sure,” you amended, forcing a smile, “but for now at least.” You glanced down at your hand in his, the warm firmness of his chest, and the soft thump of his heart beating beneath your fingers giving you goosebumps. “Cisco...” your hand began to shake under his, “let go.”

 

 

For a moment, it seemed as thought Cisco hadn’t heard you, or that perhaps he was ignoring you and simply refusing to give up your hand. But a moment more and he complied, loosening his hold on you as your fingers slipped over his and back to your side. You turned around quickly, grabbing your suitcase and squaring your shoulders. “We should get going,” you said decisively, “the others might get worried.”

 

 

“Yeah,” Cisco agreed in a monotone, “lets go.”

 

 

By the time you made it back to the wormhole, it felt like you couldn’t leave fast enough, every second spent with Cisco within reaching distance made you feel like your skin was being pricked with tiny needles. Harry could tell something was upsetting you, but he respectfully didn’t try to resume your conversation from earlier. The rush of the trip through the wormhole turned your stomach, but not nearly as much as watching it close from the other side did. You knew this wasn’t goodbye forever, you’d told Cisco as much, but that didn’t ease the ache in your chest, or the ringing in your ears as you recalled the sound he made when you’d given him that kiss goodbye.


End file.
